The long hike (Jayne's Nature) Read online

  Someone had a guitar and all the boys sang a few songs together. Jules mentioned that we sang too, and one of the leaders turned to us and said, ‘What do you sing?’

  ‘Songs,’ Jem smiled.

  ‘Mostly church stuff,’ I said, hoping to get off this subject. ‘But we do have a band too.’

  ‘A band!’ They were impressed.

  Jem looked at me like I shouldn’t have said that. But I was very confident with how the day had turned out for us and I wasn’t going to hide anything. So when they offered me the guitar I wouldn’t decline. It needed a little tuning– they seemed to think that was kind of cute– and then we sang ‘I Will Be There’ to all 60-odd members of the Boy Scouts of Atlantic County. They all clapped, and some of the men said they’d never had better entertainment at a jamboree before. They asked us for more and we sang ‘Power Of Two’, and then I started playing ‘Black Water’ which they would all know and everyone joined in. But after ‘Surfer Boy’ (our version of ‘Surfer Girl’) I put down the guitar. They all cheered anyway. I guess I was blushing. But it felt good to be appreciated after singing for our supper.

  We each visited the Porta-Potty and brushed our teeth together using our last half-bottle of now-warm water. Then we unrolled our packs and sprayed on more Off and got under the netting. Jules shimmied over next to me and Jem arranged herself on an angle with her head close to Jule’s head and her feet pointing off towards the woods we’d come from. Everywhere around us, boys went on talking till late. But we’d had a hike today and all fell asleep pretty early. I did remember to thank God for the day’s Providence and to ask for His continued blessing on us tomorrow.

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  II

  Sunday, September 5th, 2004

  No one in the camp slept in late. We girls were up by 6:30 and already there were boys milling about, cleaning things up and going to and from the Porta-Potty. The men prepared a breakfast of sausage and eggs on the grille, and we were invited to share it, but I cautioned Jem and Jules not to east too much sausage before a hike. I would have preferred pancakes and toast.

  As it was, there was a pretty long line at the Porta-Potty after that. I sort of put off going completely.

  The three of us shared half a fresh water bottle to brush our teeth and then assembled all our stuff, rolling the sleeping-bags and wrapping them over the tops of the backpacks as before. Since it was Sunday and we were all churchgoers, there was a prayer service. The lessons were read by the boys and the scout leader, who was a lay minister, asked a blessing. He even mentioned us specially, asking God that we might have a safe trip back home. It was nice to see we weren’t the only ones who crossed ourselves.

  Before shouldering up her pack, Jem took off the t-shirt and tucked it away. Now the boys were no longer curious– they were just interested. Jem’s very pretty, without being too obviously sexy, you know, and of course boys of that age should like looking at her in a bikini. I just kept my t-shirt on for the time being.

  The scout leader and one of the other men wanted to know what our plans were. Jem, with the pack on, didn’t seem to think we should let them know and interrupted me. ‘What are you guys doing today?’ she asked.

  ‘Well,’ he said, ‘we’ve got a hike planned today too. We’re supposed to make it to the next campsite… about five miles up this trail. We’ll spend another night there and then go home tomorrow.’

  I nodded. ‘That sounds really exciting,’ I said.

  He smiled at me. ‘Well, for some of us it will just be a long walk.’

  ‘What will you girls be doing?’ one of the others asked then.

  ‘Oh, we don’t know,’ I said. ‘We’ll make our way over towards the River and back down to the boat. Hopefully before dark this time.’

  They laughed at that. ‘Sure you’ll be all right?’

  ‘Absolutely. We can’t thank you enough for your hospitality,’ I said. ‘It was very good of you.’

  ‘It’s a free woods,’ the leader said. Then he gave us his cell-phone number. He was one of the men driving their gear up to the next campsite and promised to come out and get us if we needed someone to call in the middle of the woods. ‘Good luck, Jayne,’ he said. ‘Be careful today, all three of you.’

  ‘We will,’ I said. ‘And thank you.’

  They stayed there to watch us get on our way. Till then I’d been sweating in the t-shirt, but I wasn’t going to be uncomfortable for the sake of appearances and got it off and stuffed it into the pack. So the concerned men were standing there watching as I got into the bag straps in just a bikini and socks and shoes. It wasn’t that big of a deal, really.

  We turned and went directly back through the woods the way we had come in, emerging on the path from where we’d seen the taillights reflected in the firelight. One of the SUVs was moving, driving slowly into the camp. I turned away from it at once, leading us back down towards the lake, before realizing that Jules wasn’t following. Jem stopped first. ‘What are you doing?’

  Jules bent down, stuffing the dirty red t-shirt into her pack. ‘I couldn’t stand that thing,’ she said, and stood up to get the bag back on.

  I laughed. ‘You better hope the scout leaders don’t come down this path,’ I reminded her.

  Jules shrugged, getting the straps comfortable on her bare shoulders as she marched up to rejoin us. At least there isn’t too much of her to stick out too obviously.

  We hiked down the path about a mile, or about twelve minutes. In daylight everything was much easier to decipher. The path made several conspicuous turns we hadn’t noticed in the dark and the woods to either side seemed less dense than we’d thought before. Still we saw and heard no one. At our first water break Jem took off her pack and pushed down the bikini bottoms. ‘Why not?’ she said. ‘This is what we came here for.’

  ‘She’s right,’ Jules said, standing there with her pack still on and pushing down hers too.

  ‘But we’re still not off the path,’ I said, ‘and we don’t know where we are. What if we run into someone here?’

  ‘We hide,’ Jem said, tucking the bikini bottom into the top of her bag and then unfastening the top too. I shook my head, half laughing at her. ‘We’ve done it before, right?’

  ‘Right,’ Jules said, and turned round for Jem to tuck the bikini bottom into the pack for her. So then I was taking off mine as well, and then, just as we had been when we’d started, with just shoes and socks on, we got back into the backpack straps and started off again.

  Maybe because we felt pretty vulnerable hiking like this in broad daylight, I decided we’d turn towards the lake early and see what we’d find there. So we turned and forged our way into the forest, wading through the shin-high undergrowth. The visibility was probably a hundred yards through the greenish glade and we kept a sharp lookout and kept our voices and footfalls quiet. Once we heard a strong crackling dead ahead and all froze there, debating whether to drop below the undergrowth or just turn and run from whomever was coming. But the noise was retreating. ‘Look!’ Jem pointed and we all saw the white tails of two female deer darting away to the left. They’d been scarcely fifty feet away.

  ‘Wow,’ Jules said. ‘They didn’t have to be afraid. We’re just as naked as they are.’

  We laughed at that.

  I don’t know how long we were in the midst of the glade. We came to a beautiful green clearing surrounded by foliage with only the smallest shaft of direct sunlight streaming down, and we sat together on a fallen log and shared a water bottle. Jules went off to pee somewhere, and then we got moving again. It felt like half the morning was gone before we perceived a white open space somewhere ahead.

  ‘Is that the lake?’ Jem wondered.

  ‘I hope so!’ Jules sighed.

  It was. The crystal-clear blue water of the spring-fed cedar lake spread out before us, widening till we were standing on the little bank with all of it at our feet. I very nearly threw off the bac
kpack and charged right in. But that would have been foolish– and even risky. Directly across from us was the large campground, the one at the far end of the lake from the secret spot. In fact we could see and hear cars passing over the low bridge a few hundred yards to our left.

  ‘Drat,’ Jem said.

  ‘Drat too,’ Jules said. ‘I was hoping for a swim.’

  I nodded, leaning against a tree about twelve feet from the edge of the tree line. We were in the shade– even with the eastern sun no one would see us from over there. And we knew where we were… finally. It was just disappointing to find that we’d have another two or three miles to hike, through the depth of the woods, to get to where we could enjoy this beautiful lake. There were people swimming and paddling around in those stupid inflatable kayaks and plenty of gleeful noise of little kids and everything– definitely not what we’d hoped to see.

  ‘I’m hungry,’ Jules said.

  ‘We could rest,’ Jem suggested.

  I nodded again, sighing a little. ‘All right. For a bit.’

  The cooler bag was pretty warm by now, so we ate the sandwiches and had the Capri juice. After the scrumptious supper and very filling breakfast, it was kind of a let-down. I was really tired and lay down in the sand, with my feet poking out past the bank of the lake. I could have slept there for hours. It was Jem who finally got us all going again, and we slithered back into the woods, shouldered up our packs, and trudged off.

  Farther away from the campsite it grew quiet and still again. We got around a corner of the lake where we wouldn’t be seen by the campers back there, so we made our way out to the tree line and hiked the bank for a while. I wondered how conspicuous we’d look to anyone who saw us from the other side. The lake is not that narrow in the middle, maybe 250 yards across. You could see people and call to them, but you wouldn’t be able to get to them without getting wet. If anyone did try that we’d be gone away like deer into the glade and by the time they got ashore on this side we’d be long gone– and dressed again. So we were really worried more about finding someone on this side.

  The longer we hiked the more carefree we got. Jules went down and waded in the water, carrying her shoes and socks and splashing up to her ankles as she kept up with us. Jem asked me which the boy at the jamboree I liked best. I didn’t really have an answer for that– I hadn’t thought of them as ‘boys’ like that, you know. I said I was just glad to have found a safe place to stay and had been more looking forward to getting naked in the woods again. I don’t think Jem really believed me. She did say something about me being such a nun, so I turned to tease her back about that. But then Jules let out a chirp.

  Jem and I whirled about to see what she’d seen. Directly ahead, not 100 yards off, were two boys in a bright red canoe paddling along the near shore towards us.

  They were still hidden by the overhanging trees. We had time. Jules practically leaped straight out of the water, landing silently on the sand, and we all strode up the bank and into the trees. But at this particular spot there wasn’t a soft, open glade like the one we’d come through. It was mostly prickly cedars and low-hanging branches with no clear place to cut through. We couldn’t be concerned with that. We just interrupted the branches and got past them, and fortunately there was enough soft sand farther in, clear of anything that looked like poison ivy, that we could drop into cover and hide.

  I lay flat on my tummy, with the olive-green sleeping bag above my head and in front of the dark-green backpack. Jem dropped beside me. Jules nearly tripped over my foot and ended up lying on top of my leg, cowering behind a scratchy shrub where her own brown-and-tan backpack wouldn’t be seen under her sleeping bag.

  The boys were talking, not much, and not moving very fast. We heard them giving directions to each other as they paddled and occasionally saying things about the woods that they passed. Great, I thought. They’ll pick this spot to pull ashore and go exploring.

  I turned my head, only enough to meet eyes with Jem and put my finger to my lips. She nodded and lowered her head. I peered under the bush directly in front of me at the water twenty feet away. Something poked my leg and I nearly made a noise, but it was Jem who pointed to my head. Right– I still had the bright blue bandanna around my hair. With one quick motion I got it off.

  The boys’ voices neared. Then we could see them, surprisingly close– the water must have been pretty deep just off he bank. The first one had on a bright orange t-shirt and sunglasses. The second had no shirt on and seemed older– they were maybe 14 and 16, probably brothers, average-looking and not especially threatening. But how would they react to seeing three naked girls lying in the woods?

  The red canoe glided right by– neither of them even looked at us. I lifted my head to watch them pass, and one of them spoke to the other one, covering any sound I made. Jem wriggled out of the pack straps and crawled forwards, following them with her eyes, till she was slithering like a lizard over the bank to the sandy beach of the lake. The boys were gone round the corner down there. I watched her get to her hands and knees and crawl like a baby, all the way out to the water’s edge where she peered both ways to ensure the coast was clear. Then she stood up and brushed herself off.

  ‘God,’ Jules sighed beside me. I felt her breath on my bottom. ‘That was close.’

  I nodded, turning only then to look back at where she lay, half hugging my leg, with her face next to my hip. ‘Um, speaking of close….’

  She smiled and got up. I crawled forwards with the pack on and emerged from under the branch as Jem had. Even now Jem was in the lake, quietly wiping handfuls of water about herself to get the sandy stuff off. Confident that we were safe, we all got cooled-off and shared another water bottle before taking up the packs and moving on.

  That was really the closest call we had. We hiked the edge of the lake and got down to the secret spot by the path that leads from it around to the west, and we lay out our blankets, smothered ourselves in sun lotion, and lay out there for most of the afternoon. I even napped a while. I think Jules did too. Once I sat up and Jem was not on the blanket, but then I saw her coming down from what we called ‘the escape route’, the path at the back of the secret spot that we rely on in case we are surprised from the usual way in. ‘The perimeter is secure,’ she said, and sat down cross-legged beside me. ‘Sleep well?’

  I made a face. ‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘I was tired.’

  ‘It’s okay. You just looked too cute there to wake you.’

  I got to my feet, stretching a lot. I was still tired but it was about 4:00. So we ate the last of our snacks and sucked down three Capri juices and then got going. The way out to the main path was probably the easiest part of the whole hike. We stayed naked till we were on the very edge of it, and then we put on our swimsuit bottoms. I just pulled the t-shirt on without the top. Jules did too. Jem hiked a little further and finally got her bikini top on, just as we heard a vehicle approaching. We all stepped out of the way and waved as an SUV headed up the path towards the campsite.

  ‘Well,’ I said as we marched on, side by side, ‘I guess that’s the end of the summer.’

  ‘We still have tonight,’ Jules said.

  ‘I’m too tired to do anything tonight!’ Jem sighed.

  ‘I thought we’d have a little dip, once it got dark,’ I said. ‘I’d love to get clean somewhere.’

  ‘We could go up to the showers,’ Jem said.

  ‘I thought of that. But I don’t feel like moving the boat. And we can use the one at the marina.’

  ‘If it’s still open,’ she reminded me.

  ‘Yes. Or in the morning.’

  We crossed the road and made it back to the marina by 5:30. The manager was still there and waved as we tromped in, like three weary soldiers after a long battle.

  Aboard Dove, I scooped up a bucket of water and we each rinsed out our clothes, and I put on a shirt and shorts to hang up our things along the lifelines. When I got back from paying the manager
for the night, Jules was making supper and Jem was curled up in the corner of the big bunk that’s formed from lowering the table, playing my guitar. Neither of them had put anything back on. I got out of the shorts and sat in the open hatchway of the boat, facing out at the River, and watched the evening come over the Pinelands. It was a beautiful night, not quite as hot as last night and much clearer. A motorboat went up towards Sweetwater and the people saw me sitting there and waved. Of course the shirttails covered my rear end. I just waved back.

  Then Jules was setting out our supper of Beefaroni and Mom’s corn bread. We had canned peaches for dessert and sat up playing guitar and singing inside the security of the mosquito nets over the hatches till we were all too tired to hold our heads up. Jules actually fell asleep sitting on the floor with her head over on my bunk. Jem and I tried to wake her and finally lay down together on the dinette bunk. Some time in the night Jules got up and went in for the potty. I only remember that none of us put any sheets or blankets on all night.

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  About Jayne

  Jayne Louise was born in December 1987 and lived most of her youth in the seacoast resort of Surf City, New Jersey. She was taught in piano, cello, violin and guitar from an early age and co-founded, with her two younger sisters, a pop-music trio in 2002. The teens toured during the next three summers, adding the girls’ cousin and two others before recording, in 2006, their first of three CDs of original faith-based and youth-oriented rock music.

  Besides music and literature Jayne’s interests include swimming, surfing, sailing and naturism. She first published components of the collection, Jayne’s Nature, online via personal blog and profile sites, chronicling the innocent adventures she and her sisters shared whilst hiking and boating throughout the New Jersey Pinelands.